CoronaVirus and the threat of Online Education

I got ill, when I was a lecturer - ‘might possibly die’ ill. I worried a lot about my psychology classes and the impact it would have on my students. I mean - I was a first-rate teacher (according to Ofsted) - how would they survive without me?

I gave detailed instructions to my colleagues; shared my carefully crafted lesson-plans. Which they completely ignored. On my return I discovered that my students had simply been given instructions to read chapters of the text book. Oh, the horror.

People who work in bureaucracies like to convince themselves of their indispensability- one might even say that is a prerequisite.

We did a test, my students knew the stuff. I realised that I had exaggerated my sense of importance - and that quite possibly exam-wise there was little difference between all those hours of hand-waving and agonising over lesson-plans, and simply reading a book.

Are teachers indispensable? Maybe some are - but not for the reasons most think: the ‘learning’ part students can do for themselves; teachers provide the confidence, encouragement, and sometimes even the inspiration to learn. Stop worrying about the content, worry about the person.

CoronaVirus doesn’t require any educational institution to shift to online learning; students can read books. If anyone doubts this, I suggest trying a simple A/B test of video lectures/modules (i.e. of educators reading books to people) vs people reading the book for themselves. 

The entire premise of 'online education' is utterly ridiculous - except where this involves actually doing something online. So realistically, what could educational institutions offer? Coaching sessions, tutorials - those might actually be useful. Actually talking to people, I mean. 

So the CoronaVirus problem is not an educational one but a bureaucratic one: who will watch over our children while they learn?

Image: Markus Spiske